A PAIR OF FRENCH SILVER-GILT WINE COASTERS FROM THE BORGHESE SERVICE

MARK OF MARTIN-GUILLAUME BIENNAIS, PARIS, 1798-1809

Details

A PAIR OF FRENCH SILVER-GILT WINE COASTERS FROM THE BORGHESE SERVICE
MARK OF MARTIN-GUILLAUME BIENNAIS, PARIS, 1798-1809
Each circular, the borders pierced with anthemia and hippocamps, each engraved with a coat of arms, each marked on body and base
4 7/8 in. (12.4 cm.) diameter; 16 oz. (507 gr.)
The arms are those of Borghese, as borne by Prince Camillo Borghese (2)

Provenance

Prince Camillo Borghese, who married Pauline Bonaparte, 1803
The Borghese Palace Sale, Giacomini and Capobianchi, Rome, March 28-April 9, 1892, part of lot 847
Don Antonio Licata
Prince Baucina
Ercole Canessa
Mrs. Edith Rockefeller McCormick, American Art Association/Anderson Galleries, New York, January 5, 1934, part lot 671, 676, 677 or 678

Literature

A. Phillips and J. Sloane, Exhibition catalogue, Antiquity Revisited: English and French Silver-Gilt, London, 1997, p. 106, no. 29.

Exhibited

Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, June 1924 - November 1932
New York, Christie's, Antiquity Revisited: English and French Silver-Gilt from the Collection of Audrey Love, September 1997

Lot Essay

The Borghese service included sixty-four wine coasters, in two sizes. The larger coasters were presumably used for bottles, the smaller coasters were used for glasses. The Biennais wine coasters served as the model for Florentine and Roman silversmiths when filling out the Borghese service.

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